Journey · Documentary

Carving Voices

Discovering the Untold History of Kenyan Masks

A Kenyan-American painter travels to Nairobi in search of the origins of the Kenyan mask and uncovers a colonial history hiding in plain sight.

Synopsis

Arthur Midianga, a Kenyan-American expressionist painter, sets out to answer a question his own carving practice keeps raising: where do Kenyan masks actually come from? The search leads first to a carving cooperative on the outskirts of Nairobi, where a chairman reveals that the craft as it's sold today traces back to colonial-era missionaries; who first had local carvers produce Christian imagery, and only later asked them to "make your culture." A trip through Nairobi's museums turns up mostly masks from Benin, Rwanda, and Tanzania, reavealing real Kenyan pieces are strikingly hard to find. That gap sends Midianga to Machakos County and the Wamunyu Mask Society, where the true origin comes into focus: the Kamba tribe, a school built in 1969, and a named founder, Mutisya Munge.

Director's Statement

"I thought this was going to be easy. The deeper you dig, sometimes you can really find something about yourself. I feel like we're reverse-engineering the migration trails through art and history — and we can uncover our own truths and stories along the way."